was/were
began
broke
brought
bought
built
chose
came
cost
cut
did
drew
drove
ate
felt
found
got
gave
went
had
heard
held
kept
knew
left
led
let
lay
lost
made
meant
met
paid
put
ran
said
sold
sent
set
sat
spoke
spent
stood
took
taught
told
thought
understood
wore
won
wrote

Use

We use the past tense to talk about:

something that happened once in the past:

I met my wife in 1983.
We went to Spain for our holidays.
They got home very late last night.

something that happened again and again in the past:

When I was a boy I walked a mile to school every day.
We swam a lot while we were on holiday.
They always enjoyed visiting their friends.

something that was true for some time in the past:

I lived abroad for ten years.
He enjoyed being a student.
She played a lot of tennis when she was younger.

we often use phrases with ago with the past tense:

I met my wife a long time ago.

Questions and negatives

We use did to make questions with the past tense:

When did you meet your wife?
Where did you go for your holidays?Did she play tennis when she was younger?Did you live abroad?

Comments

I would like to ask a question about the usage of simple past tense. When we talk about a past event/what a person did in the past, and the relevant background information is still true now, should we use simple present or simple past?

If the person is still a taxi driver then both past and present could be used. I think a newspaper describing an ongoing or very recent trial would probably use the present; someone describing a trial long ago would use the past.

Hello Sir
Which answer for the following question is correct?
When I met him, he (type) the report.
_ When I met him, he was typing the report.
_ When I met him, he had typed the report.
Can both "tenses" be used with the word "when"?
Regards

I came across the following sentence in a grammar book .
"John has become engaged ; it took us completely by surprise."
I would like to know whether we can use 'have taken' instead of 'took' in the second clause. Is there any rule regarding this ?